


The Grumpiest Vampire

by random_pairings_50113



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 12:38:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7845259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/random_pairings_50113/pseuds/random_pairings_50113
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek’s driving through his home town for the first time in fifty years when he stumbles across the scene. It’s awful, teenagers spilling out of the high school, dressed in finery and screaming amongst themselves. Derek, parked across the street from the whole melee, takes in the flashing lights, emergency tape and panicked teenagers, and then sighs loudly. He already knows he’s going to intervene, even though he’s sworn off this kind of thing. It just gets him involved, and being involved means he gets emotionally tied up, and then he gets hurt. </p><p>He gets out of the car anyway.</p><p>OR: Derek Hale, the grumpiest vampire to ever walk the earth, tries to help Lydia Martin transition into a vampire. Only, she already knows everything</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Grumpiest Vampire

**Author's Note:**

> so this came to me as I was watching the vampire diaries and admiring Caroline Forbes once again and I just thought ... what about a Dydia AU of this? And it's currently half past 3 in the morning because that's apparently when I get all my ideas
> 
> anyway I haven't proofread it at all so whatever - it is what it is
> 
> there's not really any romance in this but if anyone wants a sequel or whatever I can probs do something about that

Derek’s driving through his home town for the first time in fifty years when he stumbles across the scene. It’s awful, teenagers spilling out of the high school, dressed in finery and screaming amongst themselves. He almost rushes to help, but they aren’t running from a threat; they aren’t panicked enough for that. He can overhear one of the boys sobbing out what’s happened to a Sheriff.

“I couldn’t - I didn’t see what it was,” he’s crying out, his hands gesturing around wildly. “I just … one minute, she was walking onto the field, and then she was … she was on the floor and she wasn’t _breathing_. There was something there – a person or something. There was blood, so much … so much blood, I can’t …”

The Sheriff takes the boy into his arms to calm him down. Derek, parked across the street from the whole melee, takes in the flashing lights, emergency tape and panicked teenagers, and then sighs loudly. He already knows he’s going to intervene, even though he’s sworn off this kind of thing. It just gets him involved, and being involved means he gets emotionally tied up, and then he gets hurt.

He gets out of the car anyway.

Derek sneaks around the side, a blur of black leather, and to the lacrosse pitch he remembers well. That’s where the most action is, where the paramedics are, where he can just make out a body across the pitch. He remembers all of the games he had come to watch on the bleachers (he was never a member of the team though; basketball was always his game) and feels a pang of nostalgia which he pushes down quickly. He’s trying to stay as removed as possible.

The body is of a girl, with dark red hair spilling across the field. Her pretty, light pink dress is torn and ruined by the blood that spreads across her. As he edges closer, he realises exactly what this is; she’s in transition. He can see the blood on her mouth, and he can sense the stillness of her heartbeat. The paramedics all think she’s dead, they’re milling about and bringing out a sheet to wrap her in, mumbling about how they have to tell another parent their kid is dead. Derek finds the ‘another’ part intriguing, but he doesn’t have time to dwell on that. He has to act quickly.

He knows he can’t leave the girl there for her to miraculously be brought back to life again – that would raise too many questions – so his plan is to get her out of there, teach her the basics, and then dump her on his way out of town. He can’t stick around here. He gets far too caught up in old memories, and it gets dangerous for him.

The paramedics cover her with a sheet and then disappear to inform the Sheriff. Taking his window, Derek runs in, scoops up the body, and then runs back out again, quick as he can. By the time the paramedics return to the scene, they have to worry about something else; how to tell the girl’s parents that her body is now missing.

The old Hale house still stands, even three hundred years since it burned down – well, the concrete basement still stands, at least. Derek carries the girl through the preserve and into the basement. For the past few times that he’s visited, he’s built something of a temporary home there, with a bedroom and bathroom (even though he technically needs neither) and a couple of sofas with a TV. He lays the girl on the bed, uses a damp towel to dab away most of the blood from her mouth and arms. He leaves her side, even that’s torn up pretty bad, because he doesn’t like infringing on people’s privacy. She can do that herself when she wakes up. Then he collapses on one of the sofas and waits.

She jerks awake three hours later, with a startled gasp and an outcry. Her eyes immediately seek him out and she tries to bolt from the room, but she’s too weak and still recovering, even though all her wounds are now gone. She collapses against the wall, while Derek watches on. If he tries to intervene and calm her down, she’ll just freak out more.

“Where am I?” she demands, hands shooting from her hair to her side in an attempt to work out what’s happened to her. “What did you … what did you do to me?”

“It wasn’t me,” Derek says brazenly. “Don’t worry. I’m trying to help you.”

“By kidnapping me?” she exclaims, her eyes meeting his. They’re green and wild, and she’s gazing at him like she thinks he’s crazy – which is probably fair.

He’s about to protest, when he realises that there’s no other way to explain it. He did kidnap her, after all.

“I kind of saved you,” he tries to explain. “You were attacked by a vampire, and now you’re transitioning into one. I got you away from that crowd of people before you turned. You can thank me after you’ve drunk some blood and you’re settled.”

The girl blinks at him, as though he’s spoken a completely different language. Then it seems to click. “Oh. So that’s what he was. I, er … do you have some blood, or do I need to … go desiccate a human?”

Derek snorts and climbs to his feet, slightly admiring the way she’s just cottoned on. Most people would freak out and at least start crying. That she doesn’t shows that she’s strong, which is good – she’ll survive easier this way. He grabs a blood bag from a mini-fridge in the corner and then throws it to her. On instinct, she catches it and then rips it open, downing it in one. She grimaces once it’s all gone.

“Gross,” she says, pulling a face.

Derek frowns and crosses his arms. “You’re not very surprised by this.”

She shrugs. “The one who attacked me has been in town for a while. He was a creep. I was doing my research. I know how this goes.”

“You’re too clever for your own good,” Derek grumbles, a little put out that he doesn’t get to explain this all. It’s the most exciting part of the whole transitioning thing. “Go have a shower.”

She laughs at him. “You’re fun to be around,” she jokes and then heads into the bathroom.

Derek ignores her and lays out one of his shirts on the bed for her, then busies himself with other things until she’s showered, clean and resting in his clothes. She collapses onto one of the sofas and watches him as he walks about, organising his things and collecting her rubbish for her. Then he sits on the other sofa, and watches her watching him.

She’s pretty, he realises, now that she’s all cleaned up. Really pretty. Long, red hair, large green eyes. In his shirt, she looks a lot fresher than before; more at peace with everything.

“You’re a vampire too, right?” she asks.

“Duh,” Derek says with a roll of his eyes. “What’s your name?”

“Lydia,” she says after a moment. “Lydia Martin. You’re Derek Hale.”

Derek is once again taken aback by how much she knows. “How did you …?”

“When I was researching the creepy stalker,” Lydia explains. “I read about the Hales, and the fire. When I realised where we are now, I assumed you were one of them. Plus, I’ve seen you in a picture from, like, a billion years ago. You aren’t any different. Except moodier.”

Derek ignores that last part. “You’re way too clever. Most people don’t even know the half of it. You don’t really need me.”

“So … you’re just going to leave me to fend for myself?” Lydia asks warily.

“Maybe in a couple of days,” Derek says, settling back into the couch. “When you’ve got the hang of this.”

It’s longer than a couple of days. Lydia stays in his makeshift house, wearing his clothes and hunting in the woods surrounding them with him. He teaches her the basics (which she somehow already knows) and even some of the more advanced stuff. She catches on pretty quickly and outstrips him as a pupil. By day four, he deems her ready to go back to her normal life.

Except she doesn’t want to.

They stand together at the edge of the preserve. Her house is in front of them, its back door wide open. Lydia can see her mother, wiping down the counters in the kitchen. Her father’s voice echoes through the open windows, which she knows is only because they think she’s dead. There’s no other reason that he’d be back in her mom’s life.

“Go on, then,” Derek urges her. “Surprise them.”

Lydia doesn’t look at him. She keeps her eyes on her mom, sucks in a deep breath, and then looks down. “No,” she says eventually. “I’m not telling them.” She looks to him. “I can start my whole life again, right? Compel myself a new home, a new family. Right?”

He shrugs. “Yeah. Anywhere you want. You could do anything. But you should let them know you’re okay.”

Lydia looks hesitant, then she decides on something. Derek watches her as she walks into the house. He hears her mother scream, and then sob with relief and hug her tight. He hears her dad’s shouts of surprise. They’re all crying, and he’s about to turn and leave, when she emerges from the house once again. She’s changed into her own clothes, and she’s lugging a suitcase behind her. The house is silent.

“What did you do?” he asks with a frown.

Lydia shrugs. “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t go back to that life. I compelled them to be happy without me, and I’ve got my stuff and I’ll be leaving after my funeral.”

Derek raises an eyebrow. “Your funeral?”

They end up going to Lydia’s funeral together. She wears large sunglasses, even though it’s raining, the hood of her raincoat hanging over her face. He wears a similar coat, even though no one will recognise him, and stands by her side the whole time. They watch as school friends and members of her family wail and sob over her wasted potential. Lydia doesn’t cry the whole time, even when her boyfriend walks up and rants about how amazing she was.

“Asshole,” she mutters as he finishes. “What an asshole.”

Derek hides his snort behind his hand.

The next morning, Lydia wakes to find Derek all dressed as though he’s about to go travelling.

“You’re going somewhere?” she asks.

He nods. “I was just waiting for you to wake up to tell you. I was only supposed to drive through here, but then I met you and … whatever. You happened.”

She snorts. “That’s really nice of you. Where are you headed?”

He contemplates it for a moment. “I have a hut by the beach in LA. I’ll probably go there.”

“I could not imagine you on the beach,” Lydia laughs. There’s something so pure about her laughs, because she rarely does them. When she does, you know they mean something. “Could I tag along? Just until I get back on my feet, get a new life for myself.”

Derek pretends to hate the idea, but gives in eventually. “Fine. You can come. But only for a while.”

It ends up lasting a little bit longer than that.


End file.
